Troy school begins Watch Dogs program

The Watch Dog program at Troy’s William B. Orenic Intermediate School has seen fathers, grandfathers, uncles and other family members rotate through the school to give support to their children and the teachers.

W.B.O. Assistant Principal Kaitlin Curran said about 30 Watch Dogs have served the school this year alone.

“The purpose of the Watch Dog program is to bring more male volunteers into the school and make a positive impact on our students,” Curransaid. “The program is available to all fathers or father figures in thestudents’ lives.”

The dads arrive early in the morning to help greet students asthey enter the school. Each then follows his child through classes, assistswith classroom activities where appropriate, and sometimes eats lunch with hischild at the end of the shift.

They also serve as great role models for other students at the school.

Doug Binns served as a W.B.O. Watch Dog this year. His daughteris Ada Binns, a 6th grader. He has also volunteered as a mentor in asimilar program at Troy Shorewood Elementary School.

“I like to see them at their day-to-day ‘job,’” he said. “Whatthey do, how they do it, how they interact with other kids. I think it’simportant to be a parent who is involved in my daughter’s education.”

Binns followed Ada to her first five classes of the day, whichincluded English language arts, social studies, math, speech and science, wherehe was able to share his knowledge of the types of rocks.

“I highly recommend it,” he said of being involved in the WatchDogs program. “It was worth taking the morning off work to do it.”

William B. Orenic Intermediate School is a Troy Community School District 30-C school.